Memory Upgrade Did Not Seem To Help Much

Question

I just upgraded the memory on my Power Mac G4 with a System 512 MB 168 DiMM 64MX64 SDRAM PC133 CL @ UNBUFF card that was the largest recommended for my machine by Crucial. This put the memory at 896 MB. The machine seems to be running a little better but I am not real pleased with the speed. I thought it would be much faster with the upgrade. I remember reading that if I increased the memory by 512 MB I needed to install two 256 MB cards. Since Crucial recommended the card I installed it anyway. Could this be the problem or is something else likey going on here? I just designated my external hard drive as the startup disc prior to the upgrade. The new starup disc is a 120 GB Edge DiskGo. The CPU Speed of the computer is 400 MHZ. I am running Tiger.
I don't know whether I need to return the 512 card and get two 256's or if I should add even more memory. Or, is this the best I am going to do with this machine unless I look at even more hardware upgrades. I have put just about all the money I planned to into the machine. Please advise.

Answer 1

Yeah
Crucial RAM is usually more expensive than other RAM manufacturers/suppliers, but that is because the RAM is of compatible quality for Macs.
$90 is, somewhat expensive for a 512 MB RAM stick, but, again, it's going to work in your Mac with, hopefully, no issues (RAM can go bad regardless of whom it's purchased from).
That said, the more RAM the better.
If you can't afford to install the full 2 GB of RAM immediately, at least splash out for another 512 stick of RAM to punp the Mac up 1 GB. Add the rest of the RAM as time and funds allow.
If your main internal drive is full or getting full, your G4 can take and additional internal IDE drive.
internal drive will be so much faster than external FW drive.
Again, it's cost.
I am assuming that the full internal drive, in question is your G4's original OEM internal drive.
It's either a 10, 20 or 30 GB drive.
You didn't mention what your Mac's internal drive size is so I'm guessing here.
A 10 GB doesn't leave very much room for large amounts of data storage. A 20 GB drive is OK, But if you filled either a 20 or 30 GB drive, it's also time to think about, again, spending some cash and add a new/larger internal drive.
An 80 GB drive will cost around $60-$70 Dollars US..
Your Mac can take up to a 120 GB drive. The cost will be around $90, also.
So, to get better performance and more storage internal to the Mac you'll be spending between $160-$200 US..
The installation of the drive isn't that difficult and drive manufacturer will have detailed instructions of how to install into a Mac.
You can choose just to use the new drive as data storage or you could partition the drive and use part of it to install a clean version of OS X (or use CarbonCopy Cloner to make a copy of your existing OS X system (assuming every is running AOK) and use the rest of the drive as storage.
I think the addditional 512 MB memory and drive upgrade is worth it, IMHO.
You mentioned that you really want to run multiple programs, though.
With 1 GB of RAM, you may be able to run, perhaps, two, maybe three, data/RAM intensive apps, and that's probably going to be all.
Again if you want to run, say, five or six apps at one time, depending on how data/RAM intensive they are, more RAM, in in some cases, more HD space, make this doing easier.
I don't think splashing out cash to make some modest improvements to your older G4 is a waste of time/money.
Especially, these particular upgrade suggestions.
Now, if we were talking about something like a CPU upgrade, then my opinions would be a bit different as the costs of adding additional RAM, HD and CPU upgrade would put you in a position of maybe looking and considering purhasing a newer Mac with better specs than your G4. Something like a newer G4 model, newer G4 iMac, G4 eMac or maybe look at the last generation G5 Power Macs or iMacs.
But, I digress, the decision to make these more modest upgrades is up to you in the end.
I bought and purchased one of the last of the remaining G4 1.25 Ghz MDD models about a year or so, ago. As of recently, I just put in 1 more 512 MB RAM stick to max out my RAM to 2.0 GB.
I put in a larger internal HD (I use an existing external FW 120 GB drive I had with my previous Mac) and I upgraded my G4's video card. The original video card was fine, but I wanted DVD's to play with better screen quality on my Mac and I wanted better screen response and redraws with certain graphic/image apps.
So, the video card purchase was more of "luxury" upgrade,
not a needed upgrade, per se.
You asked for some direction for making your particular Mac speedier as you didn't think that the one 512 MB stick really didn't add all that much speed.
Your G4 can get speedier, but only by throwing some more cash at it.
Just as long as you feel your not overdoing it.
My general guidelines for doing Mac hardware/software upgrades is if the immediate upgrade costs are $500-$600 and above, it might be time to,at least, look at newer Mac alternatives, either newer/used or brand new Macs to compare costs/features before proceeding with any more upgrades to an older Mac system.